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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, if there are four words to describe the first 7 months of the Senate Republican majority, they would be ``promises made; promises kept.''

The American people gave us a mandate to secure the border, strengthen the economy, rein in wasteful spending, and make America great again, and that is exactly what we have done while working with President Donald Trump and his administration.

You can start with the Laken Riley Act, which was the first bill signed into law, and this strengthens the Homeland Security Department's efforts to detain criminal illegal aliens and get them out of our communities.

We passed the HALT Fentanyl Act, which empowers the administration to take the fight to the cartels and to end our drug crisis.

We passed Senator Hagerty's GENIUS Act, which promotes economic freedom and helps ensure that America leads in the development of cryptocurrencies.

We passed a $9 billion rescissions package, permanently eliminating wasteful spending on everything from biased media outlets to far-left NGOs. This is just the first of many rescissions packages that we are going to send to President Trump's desk.

Now, despite Democratic obstruction, which continues even today, we have also confirmed more than 100 civilian nominees, who are carrying out President Trump's agenda, and we are continuing to fight for confirmation votes to make certain that the President has his entire team in place to serve the needs of the American people.

Most importantly, we did pass the One Big Beautiful Bill. It is now signed into law. There is so much good that is in this legislation that benefits all of the American people.

When I talk to Tennesseans, one of the most important things for them is the permanent extension of President Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. By extending these provisions, Republicans prevented the largest tax increase in history. It would have been a $4 trillion tax hike. Now, that is more than just a number. When you look at what goes into that $4 trillion tax hike, it would have meant fewer jobs, fewer opportunities, and fewer small businesses getting the doors open and hanging out the shingle.

Just the other day, I was talking to a small business owner in Tennessee, and we were discussing the Big Beautiful Bill and the 2017 law, and he went on to talk about the 2017 tax cuts when they first went in. This enabled him to hire two new employees, two individuals that were desperate for work.

Bear in mind, we had come through the Obama years with high inflation, with a shrinking economy, and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was really that spur our economy needed to get moving.

Now, this gentleman talked about these two employees and the impact they had made on his business. He was so concerned that if those tax cuts expired, he would struggle to keep these individuals on the payroll. His take was that if we did not pass the Big Beautiful Bill-- make the tax cuts permanent, restore bonus depreciation, interest expensing, R&D expensing--that for so many small businesses like his there in Tennessee, the results would be catastrophic.

But what we do know is that with the One Big Beautiful Bill, millions of small businesses can now see their way forward to grow their workforce, especially with some of the new provisions that are there: No tax on tips. No tax on overtime.

As one restaurant owner in Knox County recently said to me, the reduced taxes on tips will help his servers get about $1,000 more in their pocket every single year. He also knows that helps in making it competitive when you are trying to recruit people to come work in the restaurant business.

A server over in Chattanooga said that these tax cuts will be ``beneficial for every server.'' ``We did earn that money,'' they said. So they think it is great that they are going to be able to keep that money in their pocket.

These tax cuts are just some of the provisions in that bill that will ensure that more Americans are going to keep their hard-earned money.

What we do know is that because of this law--and it is now the law of the land; it was signed on July 4--we know that Tennessee households are going to save about $2,600 per household, per year, on their tax filing.

Millions of seniors can now count on a bonus enhanced deduction of $6,000. That is $6,000, every senior, every year. That would offset what they have paid in income taxes on their Social Security benefits.

American families will benefit from a permanent $2,200 enhanced child tax credit. Working moms and dads are going to benefit from the employer-provided childcare tax credit, as more employers move forward to offer childcare for their employees.

Family farms can pass their legacy of hard work on to the next generation due to much needed death tax relief. We now see that raised--$15 million for an individual, $30 million for a couple filing jointly.

Tennessee small businesses make up 99.5 percent of businesses in our State. That is 99.5 percent. They are small businesses. They will keep their tax breaks and be able to hire more workers.

While these tax cuts will benefit all Americans, it is hard-working people--middle-income workers, lower income workers--who are going to see the largest reduction in Federal taxes as a percentage of their previous tax bill. After 4 years of Bidenflation, this is much needed relief for hard-working Americans.

Of course, tax cuts are just one part of the Big Beautiful Bill. We secured the largest ever investment in border security to complete the border wall and hire thousands of Border Patrol agents. We strengthened Medicaid for those who truly need it by enacting commonsense work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults. We restored fiscal sanity by eliminating hundreds of billions of dollars in far-left Green New Deal spending. These are huge wins for the American people.

The good news is that President Trump and congressional Republicans are only getting started on delivering on our mandate to make America great again.

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